Cornell And McDaniel Bump Tomasi And Gleason On Batman And Robin

Bleeding Cool recently reported that DC are desperately trying to put Batman & Robin back on track schedule-wise. A book that has seen the book slip a few months brought on to help get Grant Morrison’s last issue out of the door, in time for Tomasi and Gleason to take over the title with issue 17, their first issue to shop a couple of weeks afterwards.

Except they are not ready, as Brightest Day sucks up their collective time. So Action Comics and Knight & Squire writer Paul Cornell is jumping on instead with Bat-fan-favourite Scott McDaniel on art, a three part story in issues #17, #18 and #19.

The Tomasi/Gleason arc will now start from issue 20. Which means that all the affected books will become returnable for retailers. Here are the latest latest solicitation details, with Gene Ha providing variant covers;

BATMAN AND ROBIN #17
Dick and Damian head into the murky depths of Bruce Wayne’s past to protect him from whoever has stolen the corpse of his old girlfriend, Una Nemo. Join them as they move from an empty grave to the flaming fingers to the Night Wedding – and meet a mad, gory new villain known as The Absence!

BATMAN AND ROBIN #18
The Absence has come for Batman and Robin, and, as they hear the tale in a burning church, our heroes start to realize the scale of the horror they’re protecting Bruce Wayne from. The Absence is on a mission, and it can only end in fire and destruction.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #19
Batman and Robin have found The Absence, but a deathtrap awaits them. How do you prove a negative? How do you escape nothing? When there’s nothing at the center of a life, madness can stick its claws in!

The schedule will be every two-to-three weeks until they catch up. #15 shipped on 20th October, #16 is currently intended to ship on November 3rd , #17 on November 24th, #18 on December 15th and #19 on January 12th… by which time Tomasi and Gleason should be more than ready to take over.